Cafeteria Worker Job Description: School and Hospital Duties

A cafeteria worker prepares, serves, and cleans up in a high-volume dining operation such as a school, hospital, college, or workplace cafeteria. No formal education is typically required, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median of $16.98 per hour for the closest category, food preparation workers, as of May 2025. Many employers expect a food handler card.

The job description most people find is a generic list: serve food, stock the line, wash dishes, keep things clean. It leaves out what makes cafeteria work different from a restaurant. You serve a lot of people in a short window, often the same people every day, and many of them are children, patients, or older adults. Those groups are more vulnerable to foodborne illness, and many have allergies or medical diets. This page covers the real duties, the safety rules behind them, how school cafeterias differ from hospitals, and what to put in the posting.

What does a cafeteria worker do?

The work follows the meal service. A typical shift runs in four parts.

Setup. Check that hot-holding and cold-holding equipment is working, set out serving utensils, and fill the line. Menus are fixed in advance, so staff follow a production plan rather than cooking to order.

Prep and production. Wash and cut produce, portion items, reheat or finish cooked items, and fill pans. Large batches are normal, so batch size and timing matter.

Service. Serve food on the line, portion to the specified size, answer questions about what is in a dish, and refill pans so nothing runs out or sits too long. In school cafeterias, service often happens in a short lunch window with many students arriving at once.

Cleanup. Clean and sanitize the serving line, tables, equipment and floors, wash dishes or run the dish machine, and handle trash and leftovers according to the kitchen's rules.

Titles vary. You may see cafeteria worker, cafeteria attendant, food service worker, school nutrition assistant, or dietary aide. Our guides to the food service worker job description and dietary aide job description cover the neighboring roles.

Why is food safety central to cafeteria work?

Because of who is eating and how much is made at once.

The FDA Food Code treats schools, hospitals, nursing homes and similar places as serving highly susceptible populations: people more likely to get sick, and to get seriously sick, from the same exposure. The high-risk populations hub explains who is included and why the rules are stricter for them.

Volume adds a second risk. A restaurant that makes a mistake affects one table. A cafeteria that holds a large batch at the wrong temperature affects everyone who eats from it. Three areas matter most.

Holding. Food made ahead and held for service has to stay hot or cold. See holding food for the rules and time as a control for the exceptions.

Cooling and reheating. Leftovers and cook-chill items need correct cooling and reheating. The cooling and reheating hub has the steps.

Self-service areas. Salad bars and condiment stations rely on sneeze guards and staff monitoring. The self-service areas hub covers what to check.

Staff hygiene underlies all of it. Workers must wash hands properly, stay home when sick, and report certain symptoms and diagnoses. See handwashing and hygiene and illness reporting.

How do school, hospital, and workplace cafeterias differ?

The BLS notes that food preparation workers in school cafeterias may have more regular schedules and may work only during the academic year, usually 9 or 10 months. Hospital and long-term care cafeterias often run on shifts through the year, including weekends.

What training does a school cafeteria worker need?

Schools that take part in federal meal programs follow the USDA's Professional Standards for school nutrition staff. These set hiring expectations for directors and require annual training hours, with the amount depending on role and hours worked. The USDA Food and Nutrition Service publishes the current requirements, and your state agency or school district may add its own rules, so confirm the numbers for your district rather than relying on a posting.

Separately, most employers expect a food handler card where local law requires one. There is no federal food handler card. Your state, county or city decides who needs one and which providers it accepts. The ServSafe Food Handler exam has 40 scored questions and passes at 75%, which is 30 of 40 correct. The Manager exam passes at 70%, so keep them apart. Check servsafe.com for current course options and ask your health department which cards it accepts. See our how to get a food handlers card guide for the steps.

Cafeteria managers and school nutrition directors usually hold the higher-level Certified Food Protection Manager credential. See the CFPM article.

How do cafeteria workers handle allergens?

Allergens are a daily concern, especially in schools, where students may carry an allergy plan on file and a mistake can be an emergency.

Practical habits that matter:

• Read labels on every packaged item, every time, because ingredients change without notice.
• Use clean utensils and gloves for each dish so allergens do not transfer on shared scoops.
• Know where the allergen-free items are kept and how they are separated from the rest.
• Never guess. If a student or patient asks whether a dish contains an allergen and you do not know, ask a supervisor.

The food allergens hub lists the major allergens and explains cross-contact.

How much does a cafeteria worker make?

There is no single BLS category called cafeteria worker. The closest is food preparation workers, for which the BLS reports a median of $16.98 per hour, about $35,320 a year, as of May 2025. It expects employment in that occupation to decline about 3 percent from 2025 to 2035, although about 135,700 openings a year are expected as workers leave the field.

Pay in practice depends on the setting. School jobs may pay for fewer months, hospitals may pay shift differentials, and wages track local minimums. Job boards publish their own cafeteria worker figures, but those are largely self-reported, so use them as a rough guide only.

What should a cafeteria worker job posting include?

A good posting tells candidates what the day is actually like.

• Setting and schedule. School year or year-round, shift times, weekend work.
• Core duties. Serving, prep, cleaning, dish station, cash handling if applicable.
• Physical demands. Standing, lifting, heat, and fast pace.
• Food safety requirements. Whether a food handler card is required before the first shift or within a set period after hire.
• Training provided. Whether the employer covers the card, the allergen training, and any program-specific training.
• Supervision. Who the worker reports to.

Leave out vague lines such as "other duties as assigned" without saying what they are, and do not promise pay figures you cannot back up.

What this means for you

If you are applying: get the food handler card your county accepts before the first shift. Learn the holding temperature rules and the major allergens, because both come up in interviews. Mention any experience with high-volume service.

If you are hiring: write the setting into the posting, because school, hospital and workplace candidates want different things. Train every new worker on allergens and holding on day one, not at the end of the first week.

If you manage a cafeteria: use a written check at each point of service: equipment temperatures at setup, food temperatures at the line, and sanitizer at cleanup. The staff training hub covers how to build this into onboarding.

Frequently asked questions

What does a cafeteria worker do?

A cafeteria worker prepares food, serves it on a line, restocks pans, cleans the serving area and dining room, and washes dishes. The exact mix depends on the setting. School workers focus on fast lunch service, while hospital workers may assemble trays to diet orders. Safe food handling is part of every task.

What skills do you need to be a cafeteria worker?

Employers look for reliability, the ability to stand for long periods, speed during service, and basic food safety habits such as handwashing and cleaning between tasks. Clear communication helps with allergen questions. Most skills are learned on the job, since the BLS describes training for food preparation workers as lasting several weeks.

Do cafeteria workers need a food handler card?

Often yes, but it depends on where you work. There is no federal food handler card, so state, county and city rules decide. Many employers require one regardless. Check with your local health department which provider it accepts before you pay for a course.

How do you describe a cafeteria worker job on a resume?

List the setting, the volume you served, and the tasks you did, such as serving, prep, dish machine use and cleaning. Add your food handler card and any allergen training. Specific details, like serving a school of several hundred students, are more convincing than a generic duty list.

What is the difference between a cafeteria worker and a food service worker?

Food service worker is the broader title, covering restaurants, catering, schools and healthcare. A cafeteria worker is a food service worker in a cafeteria setting, usually with fixed menus and high volume. Employers use the titles loosely, so read the duties in the posting rather than relying on the name.

Is cafeteria work a good first job?

Yes, for many people. Training is short, schedules in schools are often regular, and the work teaches food safety, teamwork and speed. It can lead to cook, kitchen lead or nutrition program roles. The tradeoff is that pay is modest and the work is physical.

Starting out? The free Food Handler track covers the safety rules most cafeteria employers expect you to know.

Sources

• FDA Food Code 2022: model rules on employee health, hygiene, holding and highly susceptible populations
• CDC: Food Safety: foodborne illness and prevention
• FoodSafety.gov: People at Risk: who is more vulnerable to foodborne illness
• USDA Food and Nutrition Service: Professional Standards: training expectations for school nutrition staff
• ServSafe Food Handler: the frontline credential, with current course and exam details
• BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook: Food Preparation Workers: median wage, training and job outlook